As crews continue to face off against a fast-moving wildfire in northern Colorado, some in the timber industry say the area's fire danger has been heightened by U.S. Forest Service policies and an economy that discourages them from harvesting millions of acres of dead trees that stand ready to burn.

The High Park Fire burned has about 80 square miles west of Fort Collins, Colo. It is 15 to 20 percent contained but has been active on its west flank, where there are many beetle-killed trees... As bad as the fire has been, timber experts say the forests of northern Colorado and southern Wyoming stand primed for more devastating burns.

Wyoming State Forester Bill Crapser said poor forest conditions in that area have increased fire danger. "We do have a real unhealthy forest situation out there," Crapser said. "We have too many trees per acre ... and we need to look at ways to thin some of those forests out."

too many trees per acre , closed historical dirt roads that could be used to fight the massive fires faster and safer, government weenies who love endless studies, eco lawyers who get paid large fees, and

Roadless areas. Yea, this is your forest now stay the hell out. Like around the Green Horn west of Pueblo where they have been closing of roads that have been there a long time. Same around Grand County.

Trees just burning up, doing no one any good. Homes destroyed, firefighters killed, millions of dollars burned up along with it all.

Forest policy has ruined our forests, nature has been thwarted and now nature is fighting back.

We’ve known this was going to happen for 20 years but the environmentalists won the PC war and now taxpayers are paying for their self-righteous mistakes. It isn’t over, not by a long shot, there are a few out there that haven’t burned yet and they will sometime or another.

There ia a building coalition of retiree forest service management types, scientists, county government, wildfire specialists, timber interests that will be meeting in mid-July to strategize how to reverse the insane trend of re-wilding, let it burn, single species management, EAJA etc.

The House Natural Resources Committee has been doing a good job with public hearings on the topic. They have been thwarted by the Senate. Nothing can get through them and the Administration’s policies are getting worse and worse.

Name a single republican that has tried to change the Forest sErvice by WORKING to get a bill passed that would fix what is borken. We can study the entire world via NASA but not how to manage a forest. We have not had this many annual 10,000 acre forest fires year after year since the Sierra Club stopped logging in America’s forests.

8
posted on 06/14/2012 7:03:57 PM PDT
by q_an_a
(the more laws the less justice)

Name a single republican that has tried to change the Forest service by WORKING to get a bill passed that would fix what is broken. We can study the entire world via NASA but not how to manage a forest. We have not had this many annual 10,000 acre forest fires year after year since the Sierra Club stopped logging in America’s forests.

9
posted on 06/14/2012 7:04:24 PM PDT
by q_an_a
(the more laws the less justice)

We all knew these fires were coming because of the Forest Service and enviro-nazis, the FS hasn't been doing their job of managing our forests.

A major logging contractor on the Wyoming side of the forest likewise says he believes some Forest Service policies have hampered removal of dead trees.

That may be the understatement of the year. Like is mentioned in the article, the Forest Service should be paying logging companies to clear these trees instead of charging outrageous fees to use what few roads they leave open.

Would seem that the US Forestry Service supports global warming through its policy of banning logging but encouraging those conditions that trigger uncontrolled wildfires. As one idiot in Yellowstone stated “although the forests were burned, the heat produced was sufficient to make the pine cones release their seeds ..... that’s how the forest would regenerate”. Now that’s as if the pine cones would not release there seeds without wildfires. As several experts have said, the greatest disaster to ever hit the National Parks and Forests has been the US Forestry and Park Services.

13
posted on 06/14/2012 8:26:23 PM PDT
by RetiredTexasVet
(There's a pill for just about everything ... except stupid!)

“Now thats as if the pine cones would not release there seeds without wildfires.”

Actually, that’s true. Much of Yellowstone is covered with lodgepole pine that have what are called serrotinous cones. They require the heat of a forest fire to open the cone and release the seed. During the big Yellowstone fires the pundits were moaning that the park had been ruined for generations - today most of it is green with re-growth. That doesn’t hold true for other species and it also assumes the fire isn’t so hot that it totally nukes the place.

So what? Those forests consist of twenty year old trees on 8-24" centers ready to blow up again. The areas that did not burn actually look considerably better from the standpoint of understory species richness, soil, and drought stress.

The whole Park is an absolute mess from the standpoint of forest and game management. Whole fields of exotics dominate the northern landscape. 95% of the aspen are gone and they will not replace themselves. The elk were starving to death until the fire got the willow going again, but then they brought in wolves and now the elk are in even worse shape. The beaver have left. Soon, the wolves will turn on the bison, as was shown in Canada, it's only a matter of time. As soon as the wolves get hungry enough, they'll start eating each other until somebody does something.

Natural regulation does not work, because "nature" is not self-optimizing. The faulty assumption is that the historic apex predators (humans) are not part of the "natural" system. IOW, typical control freaks.

Roadless areas. Yea, this is your forest now stay the hell out. Like around the Green Horn west of Pueblo where they have been closing of roads that have been there a long time. Same around Grand County.”””””

You can lay every bit of that nonsense at the feet of Bill “Blue Dress” Clinton and Bruce Babbitt.

Forest Service management plans fail to protect the vital nutrients in the forest soil from dangerous fuel levels that lead to extremely hot fires that vaporize vital nutrients in the forest soil. If the vital nutrients necessary for healthy forests were protected, periodic thinning would be required to limit dangerous fuel levels. Destroying vital nutrients destroys habitat for all species of plants and animals.

19
posted on 06/15/2012 3:56:55 PM PDT
by sforkjoe57
(How much longer must Americans be slaves to the stupidity of John Maynard Keynes?)

I live in central Idaho. We have millions of acres of federal forest land in central Idaho that looks like it’s been used for a nuclear weapons test site. Millions of acres of bare, quartz lined rocks and bleached white snags. A perfect solar oven. Without protection for the vital nutrients in our forest’s soil, critical habitat for all plants, animals, and fish species is destroyed because of insane bureaucracy and obscene litigation.

20
posted on 06/15/2012 4:10:03 PM PDT
by sforkjoe57
(How much longer must Americans be slaves to the stupidity of John Maynard Keynes?)

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